Today I am so happy to interview Eleanor Mayrhofer! Eleanor and I have been traveling in the same (Squarespace) circles for a while but finally connected a few months ago. She is smart, funny, and can launch your website in a day!

In her 25 year design career Eleanor has done everything from book compositing to designing mobile apps to methodology and agile process design for global creative teams. She’s worked on projects for clients such as Chronicle Books, Rizzolli, Vodafone, BMW, Audi, Bosch-Siemens Hausgerät, T-Online, and More.

She escaped corporate life in 2010 to start her own online business. Her work was noticed by Goop, Martha Stewart, The New York Times and Pottery Barn Kids. For the last year and a half she’s been having a really good time helping (mostly) female business owners get their websites launched in a day and figuring out their digital strategy.

Her mission is to help people use the internet to do work they find meaningful.

Hi Eleanor! Tell us a little about your web design services.

Sure! Launch In A Day and Launch In A Day+ are my signature offers. These are perfect for folks that need an online brand and want to get it launched fast without a lot of fuss.

The offer includes a 5 page starter Squarespace website and mini visual brand. The Launch In A Day version has a guided workflow of intake forms and exercises to help clients gather all their content and information to develop a visual brand.

The Launch In A Day+ version is a more 'done for you' offer. Through a short set of interviews I do just about everything.

In both offers we go finish the website together in a day or two.

How did your business get started?

I had toyed with the idea of starting a Squarespace website business for a long time. But honestly, I was hesitant about a client-based business. I was worried about projects taking forever, clients not getting there content together in time and I really don't like managing people.

But I had so much fun designing Squarespace websites for family members. Whenever someone would tell me they needed a site, I had to stop myself from offering to do it for them.

After my daughter was born I was freelancing at agencies. I was really over this kind of work but it was flexible and paid okay. Because my work had been so erratic during pregnancy and my second year of motherhood, I received a very surprising and expensive tax bill.

'Welp!' I said to myself 'I guess I'm starting that website business'.

Strangely, right after throwing up a quick website and hanging out my shingle, I got my very first client. This client is one of my all time favorites, and has been a repeat client as well. After a few projects, some of the fears I had about a client based business. That's when I settled on my day-rate model and productized services. It has been great not only for me, but also for my clients who are always wowed and happy when we finish.

How did you come to work with Squarespace?

I have a long career in the digital and web space. I would spend years on a single account and web projects were very complex. Offshore development teams in India, many many client stakeholders and big teams. It kind of took the joy out of the whole process.

I made a Squarespace website for my dad and it was so easy! Designing websites was fun again! I also experimented with WordPress, and there was a lot I liked about it. Ultimately I felt more confident handing clients the keys to a Squarespace website. Squarespace is for people to manage if they're not super-techy.

What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given as a designer/developer?

Three things come to mind:

It's not worth it to get up from your desk for less than $500 (told to me by my boss when I was a young book designer in the 90s!)
If you show a client multiple designs they will always pick the worst one, so never show anything you can't live with (another book designer boss)
People getting married are the worst clients in the world! Beer budgets and champagne taste! (from my dad, a letterpress printer, when I started a printable wedding invitation business)

If you had a piece of advice for developers or designers, or something you wish you'd figured out much sooner than you did, what would it be?

Get clear on your ideal customer. I didn't do this in my first business (the printable wedding invitation). Once you figure out exactly who you help, everything gets easier: your marketing, your messaging, which social media watering holes to hang out in.

But also accept that this is constantly evolving. It's not like you do a client avatar once and then move on. Every year I review my clients, which ones I enjoyed working with most, why they came to me and what their post-project feedback. I then run it through Donald Miller's StoryBrand Framework to review my web copy, offers and messaging.

When you aren't hunkered down at the computer, creating amazing Squarespace tools and resources, how do you like to spend your spare time?

Hanging out with my husband and our 5 year old daughter, walking our Corgi along the river, decluttering, listening to podcasts and reading too much news.

What is your go-to karaoke song?

We Belong Together by Mariah Carey

Eleanor Mayrhofer website / instagram